Research

Students who complete the integrated quantitative science course will have the opportunity to participate in research opportunities on campus.

Summer fellowships are available for students who want to work in a mentored research program during the summer following the IQ science experience. 

Summer Research Experience

Students participating in the IQ Science course will receive stipend support to conduct research during the following summer. Students will work with a faculty mentor of their choosing on an interdisciplinary research project. Summer housing on campus, funds for research supplies and grants for travel to professional conferences are provided as well. This opportunity is made possible by a $1.4 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Though funding is provided and expected for the first summer of research for IQ Science participants, students are encouraged to continue conducting research throughout their undergraduate experience. The School of Arts & Sciences has established a large undergraduate research program where students may apply for funding to assist in defraying the costs of conducting research and disseminating its results to the scholarly community. Additionally, the University has several external funding sources, including the Beckman Scholars Program.

Research Training Seminar

To introduce students to the excitement and challenges that accompany interdisciplinary research, a research training seminar will be offered primarily for sophomores who have completed the IQ science course. Speakers will be invited from the University faculty and external labs whose work demonstrates the multidisciplinary approaches needed to tackle important, cutting-edge research problems in areas such as drug design, stem cell research, and nanoscience.

In the latter part of the semester students will choose a faculty mentor from any discipline and practice integrated problem solving by developing a research proposal that uses a combination of tools and approaches from the sciences and mathematics. To build their skills in proposing scientific projects, students will iteratively draft, present and defend their ideas to their peers, both orally and in writing. Students will be able to submit their proposals for summer research funding, where they will work collaboratively with their faculty mentor on their proposed project.